Another weather debacle put boaters at risk last week on the briny deep.

The point of conflict is at Pillar Point Harbor in Half Moon Bay, where weather and wind reports have been inaccurate and sometimes dangerous for recreational boaters.

Wednesday, for instance, the forecast called for light winds up to 8 to 10 knots. On the water, the reality was 16 knots gusting to 20.

In boater's terms, the sea looked like a "herd of white buffaloes" that extended to the horizon, which is worse than "a herd of sheep" or "a lumpy sea."

It turns out that no automated electronic weather equipment has been operating at Pillar Point Harbor, or 25 miles south at Pigeon Point Lighthouse. Offshore, the Half Moon Bay weather buoy, which had also been out of commission, became operable in May.

The wind report has been based on the National Weather Service's general outlook for 75 miles of coast from Point Reyes to Pigeon Point, not actual conditions. The forecasts also overlook microclimates.

"Without on-site automated weather stations, they've been doing all the forecasts in the blind," said Tom Mattusch, captain of the Huli Cat out of Pillar Point. "The forecasts are often nowhere near the actual conditions. It is causing both commercial and recreational danger."

As for Pillar Point, the Bay Area's lone direct launch point for coastal waters, the federal budget process won't start again until October to even consider funding a station, Baker wrote in an e-mail.

Last year, Mattusch said, he and others protested the lack of actual live-time weather info to Sen. Dianne Feinstein. "We went to Feinstein's office and we got a new weather buoy," he said. "It had been out for years. It took someone screaming at public officials for several years to get anything done."

The phone-in line for the marine weather forecast at Pillar Point Harbor is (650) 726-6070, Ext. 2.